processions, involving endless dancing, in some African countries. They give the impression that one is attending a folk dance performance, which distorts the bloody sacrifice of Christ on the Cross and removes us from the Eucharistic mystery; it should be celebrated instead in recollection, because we too are plunged into his death and his self-offering to the Father […]. Finally, according to Cardinal Ratzinger, for their part, “the silent prayers of the priest invite him to make his task truly personal, so that he may give his whole self to the Lord…. These priestly prayers…do exist – they have to exist, now as
before.” (The Spirit of the Liturgy). Finally, for everyone, “the silence after [the reception of] Communion … is the moment for an interior conversation with the Lord who has given himself to us, for that essential ‘communicating,’ that entry into the process of communication, without which the external reception of the Sacrament becomes mere ritual and therefore unfruitful” (The Spirit of the Liturgy). This is an abbreviated form of an essay first published in Italian in L’Osservatore Romano on January 30, 2016 and translated by Michael J. Miller for the Catholic World Report.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Cardinal Robert Sarah is prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. He is the author, with Nicolas Diat, of God or Nothing (Ignatius Press).
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